Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide

In the mid-second century A.D., a widely traveled geographer named Pausanias made an exhaustive survey of the major cities, temples, and byways of Greece, writing one of the world's first travel books in the bargain. Two millennia later, British archaeologists Mee and Spawforth follow in Pausanias's footsteps, correcting and updating his observations and providing clear directions on how to reach such fabled places as Orchomenos, Thermopylae, and Eleusis.

Mee and Spawforth write from an on-the-ground point of view, orienting readers toward significant ruins and points of interest at more than a hundred sites. Some of them, such as the Acropolis of Athens, Sparta, and Pylos, are well known to archaeologically inclined travelers; only the most seasoned of them, however, will have attained the authors' knowledge, helpfully shared, of how to gain the best view of Mount Olympos or the Temple of Athena Nike or how to find the Sacred Spring at Corinth. Other sites, such as the Middle Helladic ruins of Tiryns and the Temple of Apollo at Bassai, are somewhat more obscure, but, in the authors' estimation, well worth a visit for their historical and scenic value alike. The book is well illustrated with maps, architectural plans, drawings, and photographs, and includes abundant sidebars that expand on historical and cultural points in the text.

Mee and Spawforth's book makes a first-rate companion for travelers to Greece, and a useful reference for the home library as well. --Gregory McNamee